A/N: I seriously want to scream.

I never meant to let my other story, Nothing Is As It Seems, go on a three month hiatus. Unfortunately, this semester is determined to kill me. I've had to meet all these deadlines for school, and I've had to focus so much on senior project that I've increased my hatred for it. Also, I know how I want the story to go, but I don't know how it should continue. I've reached Writer's Block. The. Worst. Feeling. EVER.

Anyways, I've had this idea in my head for a while, and finally managed type down everything. I hope you enjoy, and I promise I'll try to continue on my other story!

Prologue

Throughout my life, many regulations and rules have been drilled into my brain. The first rule I remember, though, was when my brother and I were three and our grandpapa was taking care of business. "Once in the family, always in the family," Grandpapa told us as we watched some guy get his brains blown out. Apparently the man had sold family secrets to another family.

Grandpapa and the Vargas family are the only things I've ever known. Feliciano and I never got to know our parents. They "vanished" right after our birth. Grandpapa was the one to raise us.

Well, maybe "raise" isn't exactly the right word…

I always knew that Feliciano was Grandpapa's favorite. The two of them spent most of the days of the week together while they left me behind. There wasn't a time when they went to the park, or out for gelato, or whatever the fuck they went out for. I always had to stay at home with the scary, muscular men with missing fingers or scars while wearing faces that always succeeded in scaring the living shit out of me. Then the times when Grandpapa wasn't with Feliciano he spent "taking care of business".

Heh. I guess that's why I grew up the way I did: bitter and hating the world.

Of course, no matter what happened, I always cared for my baby brother. Bitterly jealous that he got to spend so much time with Grandpapa and that everyone seemed to fucking adore him, but I cared for him nonetheless.

He always had a happy personality to him. Feliciano did his best to cheer people up (even if he acted like a bumbling idiot) and he always smiled. Of course, these characteristics always made him klutzy and oblivious to the world around him. It never mattered to anyone, though. He was the sun to my moon.

Imagine my surprise, though, when the two of us were nineteen years of age and Grandpapa passed away, leaving the family business to Feliciano. I shouldn't have been so shocked, but I was. What the fuck had Grandpapa been thinking? I love my brother, but he's a complete idiot! Definitely not material for heading a mafia!

...Until I saw his amber gaze darken as he watched a man get beaten close death for killing one of our guys. I couldn't hold in the shudder as he walked up to the unfortunate soul and shot him point blank in the head, a satisfied smirk on my baby brother's face. Then I realized that Feliciano wore a mask to hide the monster underneath.

Four years have passed since the death of Grandpapa. Feliciano has been running the business pretty well (and by "pretty well", I mean "everyone is so fucking scared of him that a glance makes them almost shit their pants"), and life is generally good. I volunteered to be one of my brother's bodyguards, and now he takes me almost everywhere with him. No one's messed with us for weeks, the family finances have sky rocketed, and I'm finally spending time with my baby brother.

I'm still miserable, though.

Most times I hate what I do. Most times I want to throttle my brother and ask him why the hell he doesn't just leave the business. Most times I dream of just finally getting out of this hellhole. Then I remember a guy's brains splattering the walls and floor and hear Grandpapa saying, "Once in the family, always in the family." Then I realize how fucked up my life is.

"Ve~ Fratello! Fratello!" my brother shouted. Cheered up upon seeing me, he jumped a great leap and gave me a bear hug.

I internally grimaced. This was one of those rare days when Feliciano would leave me at home. He had only been gone for a few hours, so that didn't give him a good excuse to crush my ribs. "What the hell do you want?" I growled. Let go, let go, letgoletgoletgo…

Feliciano let my attitude fly over his head. He was used to me talking like that. After finally letting me out of his grip, he started to tell his story. "Fratello, I had such a wonderful day! I picked up the money that one Spanish merchant owed me-"

"I can see that," I commented dryly, noticing Feliciano's suit. Ugh. Blood stains were such a bother to try and get out of clothes.

"-and I decided to celebrate by getting some gelato and going to the park Grandpapa always took us to." I mentally corrected him. "Well, I was sitting on a bench just watching everyone have such a happy day when this scary dog rushed over and tried to attack me! Ve~ But then this voice shouted out and the dog stopped its attack and went running away."

With Feliciano, he probably meant that the friendliest dog on the fucking planet probably went up to him to smell the gelato, and the voice was the owner in which the dog obeyed the command and went running back to its master. God, my brother could be an idiot when he wanted to.

"The man was very scary looking," Feliciano continued. "Ve~ But then he apologized for whatever reason and I realized that he wasn't such a bad guy after all." A larger smile (though I don't know how that's possible) appeared on his face, and I swear his whole complexion just lit up like a light bulb. "I decided that, since he's not so bad of a guy, we could become great friends~"

"What?" He frowned as I screeched. "Feliciano, you idiot! You don't even know the bastard and yet you've already decided that he'll become your friend?"

"Ve~ Well, I've got people looking into him." His amber eyes darkened a bit. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Yes, I do! Records don't always tell the truth, Feliciano! Hell, we alter ours all the fucking time! Besides, what if he doesn't even want to be friends with you? What-"

An explosion stopped me dead. The wall next to my head now had a hole in it, and Feliciano held a now-smoking gun. My hazel eyes wide, I watched as Feliciano wore that smile. The one that he reserved only for those we consider scum. The crazed smile that released the monster.

"He'll be my friend..." Feliciano then cocked his head slightly to one side, that damned smile still on his face. He then finished that ominous statement. "…whether he likes it, or not."

I paled slightly, knowing what my brother intended. May God look out for the man, I thought as I watched Feliciano place the gun back in its holster, then go about like nothing had happened. Wherever that unfortunate bastard is.